A variety of container closures have been proposed wherein the closure includes a first portion, body, or base for being mounted to the open end of a container and wherein the closure includes a second portion, such as a cover, that is rotatably mounted on the first portion. The first portion defines a discharge passage, and the cover defines a dispensing orifice. The cover can be rotated between a dispensing position in which the passage and orifice are at least partially aligned and a closed in the which the passage is occluded by the cover. See for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3 198,406 and No. 4,613,063.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,063,602 discloses a dispensing container in which the sidewall of the container defines a discharge passage and in which a snap-on cap is rotatably mounted on the sidewall to cover the discharge passage. The cap defines a dispensing orifice which can be aligned with the discharge passage to permit the contents of the container to be dispensed.
While the designs disclosed in the above-discussed patents may provide articles that could generally function adequately for their intended purposes it would be desirable to provide an improved closure having a unique design which could be relatively easily manufactured.
Further, it would be advantageous if the manufacture of such an improved closure would require only the single molding of a unitary article rather than the separate molding of a plurality of parts which must be subsequently assembled.
It would also be desirable if the improved closure could be manufactured with a molding process that would accommodate an efficient mold design and a highly efficient manufacturing process.
It would also be beneficial if such an improved closure could be relatively simple to operate for dispensing the contents of a container and yet effectively seal the container when the closure is closed.
The present invention provides an improved closure which can accommodate designs having the above-discussed benefits and features.